Not trying to be an apologist but those are insanely high expectations for the youngest, smallest, least experienced player on the court... no matter who the person is. The guy didn't even start in his one season of college basketball and you think he's gonna step in immediately as play initiator of a competitive pro team?!? In 12.4 minutes per game? Think we all wanted/hoped Amen Thompson would be our "next PG" at the 4th overall pick, learn from FVV, etc... Thompson was a year older, got nearly double the playing time (22.4mpg) and averaged all of 2.6 AST in his rookie year. I think Reed is exactly where he needs to be right now. Up to the point where he stops growing in some area of his game, they're managing him really well. He won't be the same player at the end of the season that he is now and I bet you the initiator stuff comes with time.
I wish I knew what Ime is telling him. Reed has to have the ball in his hands to contribute, but his role appears to be to stand at the three point line and wait for the ball. But, the ball rarely gets to Reed. The Rockets are 28th in the league in assists. When Reed does have the ball he’s unselfish to a fault. What is Ime telling Reed? It could be that Ime doesn’t feel that Reed has the ball handling skills to be a floor general. It could be that Ime favors Amen to handle the ball, which all makes sense. I thought Reed looked pretty good in summer league. It looked like he could be a playmaker. It could be that they just want to bring Reed along slowly, and not overwhelm him with too many responsibilities. But, Reed himself could definitely be more assertive. But, he may be more focused on playing team ball and not making mistakes. I’m not really all that alarmed with his play at this point. But, I do wish I knew what Ime is telling him.
Reed is playing too physical, trying to compensate for his size, and that’s affecting his shooting balance. There was a moment last night where Reed hit #5 of POR with a ferocious screen, and that guy was a full foot bigger than Reed. That type of hit rattles your body equilibrium and knocks out any rhythm. NBA’ ShortKings(tm) don’t set screens like that. Lillard has probably never set such screen in his career. In fact, defensive gurus like JVG are trying to hit the shooters like that, to knock them off their game, while Reed is initiating it himself. This is a Scotty Brooks/ Matthew Delavedova type scrappy play, not something that a #3 pick would usually do. Of course, it;s the right play for the team, it cleared a nice lane for Amen. On this team Reed will have play like that to get the playing time. That’s fine with me, he needs to pay his dues. At some point however, if the brass wants to feature him more, he’ll have to dial down a bit and look for his zone of comfort and rhythm…
You are the village idiot here the fact that you keep insisting teams are scared of Sheppard's 12 ppg in college and current 4 ppg in the NBA is proof of that. Even your net rating statistic tells you he has been ineffective. All the stats, logic and the eye test tell you teams aren't afraid of Sheppard. What's your proof teams are afraid of Sheppard? You have nothing except your opinion. Just stfu dude. It's one thing to say Sheppard can be good in the future (which I think so) but it's another to say despite him missing all his shots somehow he strikes fear and terror into opposing teams. And I know some numbnuts gonna tag me again when Sheppard has another 4/5 shooting night or whatever, but the reality is having good shooting games is an EXPECTATION for Reed Sheppard. If he sucked ass and had the occassional good shooting game he wouldn't be drafted no 3, he'd be drafted in the second round. The same expectations you have for Jalen Green is the same expectations Reed Sheppard has as the no 3 in his class. Why people are happy to see 3.8/1/1 and then gas up his steals like he is on the level of Tari is beyond me. His minutes aren't even that short anymore Sheppard is already playing 12 mpg which while on the low end is already in the range of backup minutes. To me Reed Sheppard is playing like a below average backup pg. Whether that's good enough for a top 3 pick is a matter of opinion but what isn't a matter of opinion is he isn't playing great or he isn't terrorizing opposing teams like you are saying. If he is terrorizing teams when he is averaging 3.8/1.2/1.6 what's gonna happen when he actually starts scoring in double digits? WIll opponents start guarding him the moment he comes out of the locker room? You are straight up delusional WTF.
That's what I'm saying to you. You've been wrong on every rookie you talked about predraft the only thing you are better at is being wrong. Tell me again how Knecht is too old and Edey is too slow and Castle can't shoot? Let's not forget you are also one of the doubters of Stone and front office the past 3 years. Facts have proven you wrong time and time again. So don't talk about being better you literally have one of the worst takes here.
I'm pretty "ok" with what Reed's been doing. I didn't expect him to be the second-coming of Nash merged with Steph Curry from the moment he stepped on the floor. He's rarely ever been the guy to just try and take over a game (post high school). He just tries to make the high probability/right play, and a lot of times that's just keeping the ball moving. The only exception I have to that is when he passes up some shots for a better shot. Ime alluded to that in the post game, that he's fine with how Reed's progressing, he's doing better defensively when teams try to pick on him, and he added that they wish he'd be a bit more greedy sometimes. He called him a basketball purist who always looks to make the right play, but added he wishes he were a bit more greedy sometimes.
I actually liked Ime benching Reed for passing up open shots. I hope he keeps it up and trains it out of Reed. I don’t want to keep seeing FVV and Green go 1/20 for 3 or whatever while Reed takes 1. Edit. The sad thing was I tried to over-exaggerate by saying 1/20 but just checked the box score and they actually went 1/15 …
Maybe a little of both. As much as we want Sheppard to be ready for a big role (mostly because FVV and Jalen have sucked so far) he is just not ready. Most reasonable basketball fans predicted minutes would be hard to come by on this team and that he was somewhat of a project. In my opinion, he is ahead of schedule for being a diminutive rookie that has never been a high use player. His lack of confidence was to be expected. I do think he is starting to loosen up a bit and might carve out a decent sized role of 12-15 mins by year’s end. We desperately need shooting and if he would just pull the trigger, he’d get more playing time.
Pretty much. Though I'm relegated to the idea that this team isn't really going to fly until a few things happen. 1) Sengun improves his conditioning. It takes players time. He still has trouble playing 30+ minutes. 2) Amen, Reed and Tari come of age. Easily the biggest one. Amen is the furthest along but he needs to be more assertive offensively. Tari gets winded quickly. 3) Jabari fills out. He's up to 33% from 3 after his wretched start. Another one that needs to be more assertive offensively. Him and Reed. If you have space, shoot the 3. The alternative is watching Jalen pretend he's Steph Curry. They're winning and they're fun to watch but they're still all so young.
I want to see Reed playing at least 20 minutes a night, and I want to see him handling the ball. Stop deferring. Be assertive. Call for the ball. Shoot it even when someone is closing out. You will still be better than the others, even if wide open.
He's actually shooting a lot of 3s, he's just not getting a lot of minutes. Reed is at 6.3 3pa/36 minutes, in his first 10 games he was at 5.3, in his last 8 games he's up to 7.8, which is a pretty high number. For reference, Jalen is at 9.3 and Fred is at 7.4. So he's essentially shooting just as many 3s as FVV, he just doesn't get to play very much. I'm pretty happy with the volume and, and shooting at 39% as a rookie is really really promising.
You are 30 minutes ahead of me. I also checked and was surprised that he was tied with Brooks for 3rd most on the team at 3pa/36min. It didn't look like he shot so frequently. I was also encouraged by seeing him last night hitting that pull up midrange. That shot is always there if he is more aggressive to take it.
